4 movies and 1 book

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, was a bit complicated but still enjoyable. I like both Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. I liked when Holmes would imagine how a fight would go, which was demonstrated for the viewers in slow motion, then we would see the fight not quite work out that way when it actually happened.

I went to see The Avengers with Leslea and her family. Even though we spent the first five minutes of the ride home commenting on all the things that were wrong with it -- apparently Hawkeye had about a hundred arrows in that quiver before it finally ran out and a bunch of beautiful people would fight for 10 minutes and end up with token scratches on their faces. That being said, we all agreed that it was a fun movie.

I can understand what Leslea said about the resemblance of The Artist to Singin' in the Rain. I felt The Artist used the earlier movie as an inspiration and jumping off point. I really loved it. It was beautiful and well done. Well worth watching.

I watched Disney's John Carter last night. I was expecting it to be really terrible, so I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't the best movie in the world, but it was pretty good. The dialogue could have been written better. But it was filmed beautifully and the special effects were great.

I read Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars by Daniel M. Pinkwater. I found it on the shelf when I was storing some old kids books. I must have considered reading it in high school, because I found a ninth-grade class schedule in it. It was an interesting book and a clever idea. Leonard Neeble moves to a new school and everybody hates him until he meets Alan Mendelsohn. Together the boys go on crazy adventures in which they learn mind control, visit other planes of existence and save the Waka Waka people from their oppressors. I like weird books where weird things happen and normal people have solve difficult problems. But I didn't love this book. It was very creative and the characters likable, but it wasn't great. I did like that by the end Leonard had grown as a person and learned how to confront all the problems he was having in school. And maybe, he'll get to visit his friend at home on Mars.

6 movies down, 50 books to go!

This 50/50 idea is a really good one, thanks to Heather for inviting so many of us to participate! I would like to think that I’ll read 50 books this year, but don’t count on it. There are quite a few books that I have in mind that I do want to read, so I am hopeful. However, I can be pretty sure that I will watch 50 new-to-me movies after the tremendous head start I got by watching 6 in the first 2 weeks of the year. That’s why this post is so long, my apologies.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Deals with racism and needing to overcome our prejudices even when we don’t think we have any. I definitely recommend it.

Crazy Stupid Love. It had some really funny parts where I laughed out loud, but ultimately it was about sex. The parts that made me laugh out loud did not revolve around sex, so I wish there was more of that, with Steve Carell’s goofiness.

Taken: I was surprised to be so impressed with this movie, kind of intense and a little improbable, but very exciting.

Slumdog Millionaire: Definitely not my favorite, especially the part where people get set on fire toward the beginning. And the happy ending was just not enough to make up for the overall depressing idea that there are probably lots of kids growing up in similarly awful situations.

Morning Glory: Meh. Well, I did like the frittata thing.

Cowboys and Aliens: Meh. Lots of gratuitous violence, not much of a story. Plus, why were there only 2 women, one of them absent the whole time, and the other (SPOILER!) is actually an alien? Oh, wait there was another woman whose face we see, but she was dead the whole time and we don’t know anything about her except that she was a prostitute. What’s that about? Ahem, getting off my soap box now….

Now I also have some recommendations of movies that I’ve seen very recently, but not this year, so if you need some more ideas to get you moving, expanding your horizons, here are some.

All about Steve: I liked it because (SPOILER!) they don’t get together in the end, kind of like my very favorite romantic drama “Roman Holiday”. But be warned, it is also very silly, with lots of plot devices to make it sillier, but at least the whole story doesn’t revolve around sex.

Another plug for Contagion: Superb movie, but I was watching it on a plane, which was not reassuring. It had so many interesting elements about the spread of the disease and the way individuals tried to deal with it. I have a lot more I want to say about this one, but this post is already too long...

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, as well as the first Sherlock Holmes movie from Guy Ritchie.  We’re big into Sherlock Holmes in our house. We’ve also been watching the BBC TV production Sherlock, which we love. These are all great adaptations of the stories. and I think they both have very fitting music; I’m very impressed. Too bad I’ve already read all the books - I could eat those up for this challenge.